The Host
by AttackonBakura
Summary: Slight-AU. Following the ceremonial duel, Ryou Bakura, a boy who for most of his life was never himself, finally begins to live his life as a free man and discover who he really is. But when unexpected ghosts haunt him and his live little sister and a great evil arises once more, will he and his friends ever truly be free? Ryou BakuraxMystery, eventual Yami MarikxAmane Bakura/OC
1. The Man who May Have Been Ryou Bakura

**Re-Post! After a good two or three year hiatus, I'm ready to get back into the fanfiction game and I have this story now all planned out! If you want to check out some of my other writing, check out my reader-insert imagines blog on Tumblr: Sports-Shounen-Scenarios! Updates every day Monday through Saturday and sleepovers on Sunday! Enjoy!**

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Chapter 1: The Man Who May Have Been Ryou Bakura

Ryou's hand was completely numb. That's all he felt concluding the entirety of his fifteen minutes of sleep. He rolled onto his back, trying to shake it out, aggravated that this was the only thing his moment of peace would yield. He glanced over at his alarm clock.

3:15 A.M.

He rolled onto his back and closed his eyes, allowing sleep to encase him…

…encase him.

…

…

…ENCASE HIM!

…

…

…Surely that was a few hours.

He opened one eye to take a quick peak at the alarm.

3:15, wait no, 3:16. It just changed. Good one minute of sleep, the next hours would come in no time!

…

…

…

…Who was he kidding?

He groaned as he sat up, abandoning any hope for sleep. He reached over and turned on the lamp on the nightstand and slipped out of bed. He wandered through his apartment, flicking on lights as he went, trying to find a more productive way to spend his insomnia than watching seventies anime re-runs and tournament poker on TV-as was all that was truly on at that time of night. Then again, it was so eerily quiet that that media box was starting to seem more and more tempting. Why if the Spirit of the Ring was here then-

No.

No even if he was still possessed by the Spirit of the Ring it would be the same. The Spirit wouldn't talk to him or ease his loneliness; he'd just leave him unaccompanied, that is, if he'd even allow Ryou to be conscious right now. For the majority of ten years, Ryou hadn't been himself. He never learned who he was, what he liked, who he liked. He never experimented; he never dated, or even had a full crush. There was of course one particular brunette dancer he had always found quite pleasant to be around and look at, but he'd never had the chance to favor her beyond that. He never was able to decide for himself whether he liked studying or slacking, whether he preferred reading a book at home or out drinking at a bar. He spent most of his life locked up in a room inside his own head. He spent so much time there that when he actually was conscious in his own apartment, he didn't remember where the silverware was, he couldn't even remember what drawer his socks were in, or when he had organized them. It had all been the spirit. And yet they never conversed. He found this to be the most ironic; the Spirit had been imitating a personality Ryou wasn't even sure he had.

The Spirit never abused him or praised him, he gained no pleasure from either, in fact he found any time he had to converse with his host more of a nuisance. Of course the spirit had never told him that, but Ryou could feel the semblance of those emotions himself. Or at least he thought he had. Even if the Spirit was here, Ryou would still be all alone in this empty apartment. They never talked or had fun or played games or even argued like Yugi and his spirit or Malik and his darker half did. They just coexisted, with two completely different goals, sometimes needing to manipulate the other to achieve their own. The Spirit never cared. Ryou was just a landlord who sometimes came by to collect the rent, only to be shunned away and locked in a box.

This was hurting him on far too many levels.

Without realizing it, Ryou found himself in the most unfamiliar room of his apartment, most unfamiliar because it was brand new. His father had always been quite good at gift-giving (save for one life-condemning Millennium Ring), and Ryou's High School graduation /college acceptance gifts had been no exception. His father had given him two keys to truly unlock the doors to his adulthood. Although not often, his father had come and lived with him time and again during Ryou's adolescence in Domino City, but when the albino graduated, his father gave Ryou his key to the apartment. It was all his and he was to do with his father's room as he wished for he now lived completely by himself. This in retrospect wasn't all too different from before, only now the house was a bit emptier and he had to pay his own rent, but it was a flattering responsibility and sentiment nonetheless. The second key had been to a 1998 Toyota Hiace van which Ryou absolutely loved.

But now that he had free reign of the apartment and all of its rooms and, in an extremely last-minute decision sparked from the idea of his overly-optimistic and nutty sister Amane, he had invited said sister to come and live with him in Japan. The first time they'd have lived together in nine years.

At nine years old, on the walk to school, he and his sister were almost hit by a car. He had blacked out and found himself halfway across the street with the car barely a foot away from his fallen sister. The Spirit had taken control of his body and gotten himself out of the car's way, leaving his defenseless sister to fend for herself against a thirty-five hundred pound metal monster, it had been sheer luck that the driver in his inebriated state had swerved to the side and barely missed her.

Although he hadn't realized it was the Spirit at the time, he had sensed there was a connection to the Ring and his sister's accident, to the voice in his head, to his blackouts, and to comatose friends. He couldn't be close to them anymore, it wasn't safe. So when his father decided it was time to stop moving the Bakura family around and just travel for work on his own, Ryou had volunteered to accompany him. Because of that decision, that car crash, and that spirit, it had been nine years since he had seen or heard his sister. He didn't want the Spirit to talk to her in his place, so he had always written letters instead, but still he had missed her so. She had been his best and only friend through most of his early childhood. And now tomorrow, she would be living with him, sleeping in this new room he had spent days, no, weeks, renovating for the teenager.

He smiled, taking one more look around the room before turning off the light and moving on in his late night wanderings. He now arrived inside his once-so-familiar game room. The large Monster World game board in the center of the room was covered with a large sheet, the glass cabinets filled with custom figurines were coated in a thin film of dust, and everything was untouched since the day he and the gang played with it all. During the days that the Spirits were here, through Duelist Kingdom, Battle City, and everything else, the whole world was in a Duel Monsters craze that still continued today, and the King of Games and his friends were no exception. Of course Ryou himself liked the game as much as the next teenager, but as for him, Ryou always preferred his good and familiar Monster World. It was exciting and reliable and revolutionary to the world of RPG's at its inception, but outdated in comparison to Kaiba's holographic additions to Duel Monsters. Due to this and the Spirit's constant control and affinity for dueling, Ryou's activity in the game vanished.

Ryou roamed around the room, coming across the desk he often used to make figurines. There was one still there, halfway complete and the image he modeled it after still fresh in his mind. It was a Dark Thief NPC he had created to add to the collection of bosses in his game, to Dark Master Zorc's army to make the game more difficult for him. He had yet to add hair or facial features to the figurine, all that had been designed were his red and white robes and shoes, tanned skin, and intimidating muscles.

Without thinking, Ryou found himself sitting down at the desk and mechanically unpacking his art supplies. He pulled out a small block of wood and began carving the sharp edges of the mop of long hair he saw in his mind. He was a bit rusty at first, having not whittled a character for about three years, but soon found himself in the swing of it once more. In a flurry of wood shavings, airbrushing, and wood glue the hair was complete and attached. Next were the facial details. He wielded the fine tip paintbrush with a familiar precision. Images of an Ancient Egyptian thief he had never seen even in his dreams flooded his mind—cold, merciless violet eyes, a double-crossed scar under the right eye, and a large wolfish grin that both warmed and chilled the heart with its confidence. Once he finished the detail, he put it in front of a small fan to dry and pulled up his computer to formulate a custom barcode for the figure in order to make the character compatible with the system. As he came across the last algorithm, the one to decide whether the character was playable or not, he found himself pausing. The character was originally intended to be an NPC, an antagonist, but now Ryou wasn't so sure. He was so comfortable with the figure, so enamored. He couldn't help smiling at it every time he looked at it. It wasn't the most ornate figure he had made by any means, but he somehow felt so proud of it. Maybe he could play it, but he himself—not his dark side—had never played the villain before…

 _"I've decided to keep you as my host forever!"_

That's what he had said. But then why did he leave?

"Because I had a goal my dear landlord."

Ryou blinked. That was no memory, the Spirit had never told him that, there were never explanations as far as he was concerned. And what more he had heard it with his very own ears. He looked around, searching for someone else in the room. It was very empty. It was all in his mind.

He shook his head, muttering, "Whatever goals you had, I don't care. I had goals and wishes too you know."

"Yes but I granted those wishes did I not?"

"You did not." Ryou spat to no one in particular, "You twisted my words around. You hurt my friends. My sister…"

"You really are ignorant aren't you? I suppose it came from running around with that Pharaoh and his little cheerleaders all this time. They infected your views and made you close-minded. I only thought of your happiness—k!"

"LIAR!" Ryou screamed, slamming his fists on the desk. "If you'd cared about me even a little bit, you would have at least talked to me!"

And then he stood, panting from his outburst. There was no voice. He was a lone.

What else was new?

He glanced down at the figure, instantly panicking as he saw it fallen to its side, still wet with paint.

"Oh! Oh no!" he hurried to pick it back up and set it down on its base gently.

He was brought back to his computer, the algorithm. He stared at the screen once again. NPC, playable, NPC, playable…

…

…

…

…Playable.

He'd try something new.

He'd play a villain.

A window popped up to register the character into the Monster World Database. He submitted the custom bar code and the character appeared in 2-D on the screen. Now to enter a name…

A thief, no he was more than a mere petty thief, a thief king. Ryou smiled, as the sun began to rise in his window, and as the perfect name popped into his head.

Level 1 Human Thief.

Affiliation: Dark Lord Zorc

Name:

Thief King Bakura.


	2. Hey! That's My Sister!

Chapter 2: Hey! That's My Sister!

Ryou checked his watch as he stifled a yawn and looked around the crowded airport nervously. She wasn't here yet. Her flight had left on time; she should've been here already!

His body had picked the wrong day for sleep deprivation.

"Oi Bakura," Jounouchi called, hands in jean pockets, and followed by Honda, "We checked the flight updates and it said the plane just arrived. Your sister should be down here at bag claim pretty soon."

"Ah, thanks. And again, thank you so much for coming with me, it means the world to me." Ryou said, rubbing the back of his neck nervously.

"No problem!" Honda chirped.

"Yeah really, I know what it's like to be separated from a sibling for a long time. I felt just as nervous the first time I saw Shizuka before her surgery. Of course I had also been punched in the face by Honda right before, but what can you do?" Jounouchi laughed.

"Oh my god! You punched him in the face?" Ryou gasped, turning to their now-irritated friend, "What on earth for?!"

"Eh, long story, seriously not that important." Honda said, smacking Jounouchi lightly on the arm, "So what exactly does your sister look like? I mean who are we looking for?"

"Um well to tell you the truth I'm not quite sure." Ryou laughed nervously.

"What!? You don't know what your own sister looks like?!" Jounouchi shouted.

"Well I haven't seen her in nine years, since my father gave me the Millennium Ring. I didn't want to put her or my mother in danger so I went to live with my father and kept almost no contact with them. The only way Amane and I ever spoke was through letters so I haven't seen her or heard her voice since she was six years old." Ryou explained.

"Well isn't that helpful?" Jounouchi said sarcastically.

Ryou blushed, "Uh well, I have a picture of her, she was really young in it but there should be some resemblance right?"

He scrambled for his wallet in his back pocket and flipped it open. Honda and Jounouchi leaned over his shoulder to get a better look. The young girl in the picture looked just like a porcelain doll with her white hair in curly pigtails and adorned with small custard yellow bows. Her dress, an elegant combination of velvet, lace and chiffon was the same color, with blue and white bows adorning the skirts and bodice. Her tiny black Mary Janes poked out at the bottom, showing off her white lacy stockings. But what stood out the most were her large, doe-like shining chocolate brown eyes and long curling lashes, identical to her brother's but so much more ingenuous to the horrors of the world.

"Damn your family has good genetics Bakura." Honda said, "She looks like a little doll."

"Pretty cute. Although mine's cuter!" Jounouchi joked.

Ryou laughed, unable to hide the pride in the innocent beauty of his baby sister, "We had just moved to London in this picture. My mom loved to study history of every place we moved to got really into all the Victorian clothes she could dress her up in. Still, those clothes really did suit her personality—she's such a sweet girl! Even in her letters, she's always been so optimistic and life-loving. She's a track star too! I just can't wait to see the lovely girl my baby sister's become."

Jounouchi and Honda smiled at their friend happily, having not seen such genuine pride and joy in their once-controlled friend in a long, long time. It was good change to see in him, to say the least.

The blonde patted his shoulder, "Us too buddy. Us too."

"Onii-chan!" a familiarly sweet voice lilted and instantly Ryou was back to his happy childhood before the Millennium Ring, seeing his angelic sister walk up the driveway in her Sailor Moon backpack, reading storybooks to her until she fell asleep in his arms, and finally being someone's valiant night and protector rather than someone's pawn or predator.

Ryou turned happily and gasped in excitement, "Ama-GAH!"

…which very immediately turned to mortification

"NOT THAT!" all three thought in unison as they turned to complete stone in shock.

Amane ran up to the group of boys, her hair in a messy ponytail with a pair of ray bans placed in the thick fringe and her voluptuous body barely clad in a white, cropped, strapless bustier top, high-waist dark blue short shorts, an open brown cardigan, and a pair of tan-suede, five-inch, lace-up ankle boots. She leaped onto Ryou throwing her arms around his neck and legs around his waist, immediately making him extremely uncomfortable with their once innocent greeting ritual.

"I've missed you so much onii-chan!" she squealed, giving him a large kiss on the cheek and instantly wiping the lip gloss stain off with her thumb.

"M-M-Me too." He stammered, completely taken off guard by the transformation.

She immediately noticed her brother's stiffness and resistance to hug her. She got down and looked up at him with the puppy-dog eyes that had melted his heart time and time again since diaper days.

"What's wrong nii-chan? Aren't you happy to see me?" she whimpered.

"Of course I'm happy to see you! Just…Just not this much of you."

She raised an eyebrow, "Huh?"

"For starters button up this sweater! Everyone can see your… dirty pillows." He fussed, fiddling to quickly close the material up to her neck.

"Oh come one nii-chan! Everyone dresses like this back in Florida… And don't you quote Stephen King at me!" she groaned.

"Honda-kun, Jounouchi-kun, give me a jacket—," he stopped as he glanced at the two staring slack-jawed at Amane, "Hey that's my baby sister!"

The two immediately snapped out of their stupor in a fluster, earning a giggle from Amane, "Nii-chan, it's like a hundred degrees out right now, you buttoned up the vest, I'm fine."

Ryou knit his brows in inner-debate. Amane laughed and threw an arm lovingly around his waist, "Come on nii-chan let's go get my bags."

He gave up and went along with his sister to baggage claim. He knew she had to grow up at some point, but that drastic change had given him some serious whiplash.

"So care to introduce me to the men who'll be carrying my luggage?" she asked.

"What makes you think I'm not carrying it?" Ryou replied.

She raised an eye brow and pinched his very noodle-esque arm around her waist with her perfectly manicured, light pink acrylics.

"Heh heh, good point, these are two of my friends from high school and soon-to-be college classmates Honda Hiroto and Katsuya Jounouchi." He answered.

"Oooh! College classmates?! You two must be really smart!" she boasted.

Jounouchi puffed out his chest in proudly, "Well I don't usually like to brag but I was ranked two-hundred and seven out of our graduating class."

"Jounouchi, our class had two hundred and ten students." Honda sweat-dropped.

"Exactly! I wasn't two-oh-ten!" Jounouchi said, grabbing two bags off the carousel and Honda grabbing another three.

"Wow, two-oh-seven and got into Tokyo U? You must have crammed like hell to pass that entrance exam!" Amane said in disbelief, grabbing her final duffel bag and throwing it over her shoulder.

Ryou scratched the back of his head awkwardly, "Well about that, I actually didn't get into Tokyo U."

Amane stopped dead in her tracks, "What?! But you're a genius! You've been top of your class since kindergarten, what happened?!"

"Well, life happened. I became a victim of circumstances as they say. I had to take on some unasked for responsibilities and had to prioritize my life. Going to school and studying for exams wasn't exactly an option at the time. It's a miracle I didn't have to repeat the year with how much school I missed to be honest." He explained.

"Well what circumstances?" Amane demanded.

Ryou bit his lip, not sure what to say. It had been a month since the Spirit of the Millennium Ring had left, but it still felt so raw to think about, let alone talk about, especially after last night…

Jounouchi noticed his friend's hesitance and swooped in for the heroic rescue, "Hey that security guard guy is giving us a dirty look. We should probably get out of the airport now that we have your bags, Bakura-chan."

"Yeah," Honda piped in, very quickly catching on, "You've had a long flight. You guys shouldn't be getting into a serious conversation so soon. Let's go get some lunch!"

She obviously was not very satisfied with that answer. But, not wanting to make a scene or get in a fight in front of these new people, Amane hesitantly agreed, "Okay fine…"

Ryou rubbed her shoulder reassuringly, "Don't worry Amane. The point is that I'm okay now. And that you're here! I've really, really missed you."

Amane smiled and nuzzled closer into her brother's side, giving in to his tenderness "I've missed you too nii-chan. Just…Just so much."

He smiled back, patting her head paternally, "Now come on, let's go get some food!"

* * *

"I-is that a clump of Top Ramen… covered in chocolate sauce, cream cheese frosting and… vegetables?" Amane asked in disgust as she watched Ryou drop bits of mochi into the big food clump sizzling on the grill in the middle of the table, "Gah! You're adding more to it?!"

Her companions laughed at her horror.

"What, you've never heard of okonomiyaki?" Jounouchi asked, his mouth watering as Ryou sprinkled ginger on the top.

"Umm, bless you?"

Honda and Jounouchi raised their eyebrows at her.

Ryou laughed as he moved the okonomiyaki around the stove with the spatula, "Guys she hasn't lived in Japan since she was two years old. The extent of her Japanese cuisine knowledge is California Rolls."

"Yeah, yeah, so I'm the big banana here, whatever. You never answered me! What the hell is that thing?" Amane demanded.

"It's like a Japanese pizza Amane, really similar to a vegetable pancake or an omelet. And those aren't noodles like in… top ramen, they're actually grated nagaimo." Ryou explained.

"Okonomiyaki with noodles underneath is modanyaki." Honda piped in.

"That's right!" Ryou praised, cutting a large slice and dropping it onto Honda's plate, "The servers give us a bunch of different ingredients and we get to make it the way we want with those ingredients."

"Well what are those sauces and green stuff on top of it?" Amane asked as a slice was plopped onto her plate.

"Otafuku sauce, seaweed flakes, bonito flakes, Japanese mayonnaise, and pickled Ginger." He answered, serving a slice to the drooling Jounouchi and then himself, "Try it!"

Amane brought a small bite up to her lips hesitantly, testing the taste with a small sniff. It smelled like a sweet omelet, she was almost overwhelmed by the flavors enwrapping her nose. She looked to Honda and Jounouchi who were already almost done with their servings and pushing bowls of raw ingredients to Ryou for the next batch. But her brother simply sat their patiently, waiting to take a bite until after he saw her reaction.

She closed her eyes tight and shoved the bite into her mouth, immediately barraged with a multitude of flavors that hit her like a machinegun all at once, but in a gloriously good way. Her eyes widened. Who knew food could be this flavorful?! She immediately joined Honda and Jounouchi in scarfing down her plateful like no tomorrow.

"Ith thdere bacon in hare?!" she asked, mouth full with three-going-on-four bites of the pizza.

Ryou smiled, "No it's thin pork belly, tastes pretty similar right?"

Amane nodded her head, gulping down her overflowing mouthful only to gasp for breath and shovel in more food to inhale. "Dthis food is amathing! Oh! Dath remindths meh. Ryou, I hab a presthent por you!"

"Oh you do? Would you care to swallow your food first?" Ryou asked teasingly.

Amane nodded quickly, finishing her bite. "It's in my carry-on in the car. Could I have the keys to get it?"

"Of course." He said, pulling the keys from his pants pocket and handing them to her.

The young girl skipped off happily and Ryou immediately found that he had to keep himself from attacking every male (and some females) in the restaurant for the way they were staring at his baby sister's retreating form with such lust filled eyes.

He groaned, dropping his head on the table, "Oh this is terrible. I love her so much, and I'm so happy she's here, but, b-but… MY BABY SISTER IS NOT SUPPOSED TO HAVE THOSE KINDS OF CURVES!"

"I don't think any teenage girl is supposed to have those kinds of curves, except for maybe Mai Kujaku, she probably did. Actually now that I think about it, those two would probably get along really well." Honda laughed, "They could man-eat together."

Ryou sent him a spine-chillingly murderous glare rivaling that of the Spirit of the Millennium Ring, "Don't you ever say that again."

Honda laughed, holding up his hands defensively, "Well what do you expect Bakura? You're quite the looker for a guy too ya' know. Do you know how many girls look like they want to rip off your clothes on a daily basis? It's gotta run in the family!"

"Yeah," Jounouchi agreed, "I mean what does your mom look like?"

Ryou pulled out his wallet, shifting past the picture of Amane and the group shot of him and the gang at graduation to pull out an old family portrait. His goofy, bespectacled father stood holding an infant Amane who even back then had those large, photogenic eyes. A five your old Ryou stood there happy and laughing, one arm shyly pulling down his button-up shirt and the other grabbing onto his mother's blouse, who kneeled sweetly-smiling next to him. Honda and Jounouchi blinked at the picture.

"What? What's wrong?" asked Ryou.

"Dude, your mom's a total milf." Jounouchi said, staring at the picture in awe.

The three sat there in dead silence for a minute before Ryou practically tackled him screaming, "I'll kill you!"

"I'm back!" Amane announced, halting the battle and forcing the boys to return to normal for appearance sake.

On the inside however, Ryou was ready to rip the blonde's head off and the dynamic duo were practically crying from suppressed laughter.

Amane stood facing her brother, the present hidden behind her back. "Nii-chan, before coming to Japan, I went back to Paris and stayed with Sylvie's family for Spring Break, and before leaving I made sure to pick up a certain something homemade by her mom. Happy Graduation!"

Ryou gasped, his homicidal thoughts from earlier instantly forgotten as Amane pulled out a tupperware of the homemade creampuffs he so often gorged on when they were living in France. "Amane! Do you know how hard it is to find good French-style cream puffs in Japan?! And to think you brought me Suzette's homemade ones—oh this is amazing!"

He threw his arms around her, practically bawling from happiness.

Amane giggled and returned the embrace, "I'm so glad you like it! The truth is that I'm just so happy to have my big brother back. When you left I thought it was because of something I did, I thought you hated me. Your letters proved otherwise but it still hurt that you were gone. I know you have your reasons and I really hope you'll tell me someday, but that's all in the past, and I'm just so glad to have my best friend back."

Ryou instantly felt a pangs of guilt thumping in his chest. Of course he did leave because of her, but not because he hated her, not by a long shot. He just wanted to protect her. He was her older brother. It was his _job_ to protect her. However, the leaving part was not where the guilt came from. She was right, it was all in the past, the Spirit was gone and life was moving on. That was great! Everything would be back to normal now, maybe even better! But still, he felt guilty and selfish because…

…because he wasn't sure if he wanted that or not.

* * *

 **Go eat some okonomiyaki guys. You won't regret it.**

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 **Admin Ryou out.**


	3. It's the Thought That Counts

Chapter 3: It's the Thought That Counts

It was dark, so dark. Everything one saw or touched was bathed in the shadows. The silent and seemingly endless abyss was broken by a single figure moving slowly through the blackness. It was pressed close to the edge so as not to fall deeper into the exotic land of shadows. However, as it came to the end of the line, it realized that it had to wander for there was nowhere else to go but into the uncharted territory. It took a step forward. One more. So far so good. It could make it…

THUNK!

"Ow shit! Frickin coffee table gah!"

Amane hopped around, clutching her throbbing foot in pain and falling back onto the couch. Her hands roamed next to the couch's arm rest until she found the lamp on the end table and switched it on.

"Amane?" Ryou called poking his head into the living room from his game room, "It's five in the morning, what are you doing up?"

She immediately jumped off the couch, folding her arms behind her back innocently, "Oh you know couldn't sleep. Way too excited for school, I'm starting high school for the second time after all!"

He smiled walking into the living room, "Yes, sorry you have to be at the bottom of the food chain again."

"That's alright! This way I get to have a classic anime high school debut and romance!" she giggled.

He rolled his eyes, "Yes well since you're up, how about I make some breakfa-?"

"NO!" she shouted, instantly cringing as she noticed her brother's confused and slightly surprised look, "I-I mean n-no, you don't have to! You know it's so early, I'm still on America's sleep pattern, so I'm not hungry at all, so don't go to the trouble yet alright? Maybe in a little while."

"Okay?" He said, almost asking it, "Well what are you going to do for the next three and a half hours before school?"

"Oh, just watch some T.V, stare at myself in uniform in the mirror, you know, five in the morning girl stuff."

Ryou gave her one more skeptical look before retreating back to the game room, "Well alright, but I'll be in here if you need me. Just let me know when you're hungry."

"Will do nii-chan!" she called back.

Amane waited a moment before continuing her original plan of quietly sneaking into the kitchen, however all toe-stubbing adversaries were now illuminated, easing her opposition from the apartment by at least fifty percent. She flipped on the light switch to the pristine and immaculately organized kitchen. No expense had been spared on the white marble counter tops and deluxe double-door refrigerator. She smiled as she saw hints of Ryou's personality scattered throughout the otherwise soulless kitchen; such as the custom-made Monster World spice rack, a light blue apron with cream puff and Duel Monsters patches sewn on, and a few pictures of friends, family, and newspaper clippings held onto the fridge by assorted food magnets. One clipping had a picture of him and seven other people wearing duel disks with the title "Battle City Finalists", another was a picture of him and his friends making peace signs in front of the pyramid of Giza (with one tan and blonde haired boy that was especially hamana worthy), but what caught her attention the most was one very familiar polaroid.

It was the last summer her and Ryou had spent together before he left, when they had gone on a family vacation to Hawaii. The Bakura siblings were on the beach at the edge of the water, Ryou was wearing a pair of light blue swim trunks and a white t-shirt and Amane wore a pink skirted one-piece swimsuit and matching floaties on her arms and legs. Ryou carried her, his long, thin legs buckling a bit as the fiver year old Amane climbed higher up onto him. He had taught her how to swim that day.

"Don't cry Amane-chan!" he had cooed every time he tried to set her down in the water, "Nii-san is here! He won't let you drown! Please! Please don't cry!"

 _"_ _Don't cry beautiful…"_

Amane's breath hitched at those raspy, unwanted words. The shutting of the game room door snapped her out of her daze. She reminded herself that she was on a mission and quickly opened the refrigerator doors to get to work.

* * *

"You have defeated the Level Three adventurer Magic Bow Meister Sano. Thief King Bakura levels up to Level Four." The automated computer voice said.

Ryou had been playing Monster World online practically all night. Perhaps it wasn't the best way to spend the night before his first day of college but Ryou found himself unable to sleep even a minute the previous night. Perhaps it was all the excitement of Amane finally living with him again. They had spent every day since her arrival bonding and getting each other ready for school, the last week of spring vacation had gone by in the blink of an eye. It would make sense that it would be Amane, after all, he hadn't been able to sleep any night since she was here, but his gut told him that that wasn't it.

Maybe it was the detail that he was in fact starting college today, although he doubted it. He had started new schools more times than he could count on both hands, so he was no stranger to new environments. Not to mention he wouldn't be completely alone, Jounouchi and Honda would be right there with him in the pool of undeclared majors, so that was unlikely. So then what was it?

"Maybe, it's because of me." A distantly familiar voice said.

It was a voice he so seldom directly heard in his life, yet was so distinct, there was no way he could mistake it. It was something from an old dream, no, a nightmare. Ryou scanned the room, not sure what he was looking for, the Spirit had never actually revealed himself after all. His eyes focused on the Thief King figurine. He left his seat and wandered over to it, taking it gently into his hands.

"Was it you?" Ryou asked.

"Not quite. Look up, _landlord_."

He snapped up, finding himself face to face with his spiritual doppelganger floating nonchalantly above him.

"N-no, but you're—but you're dead!" Ryou cried.

"Yes, and I've been dead for over three-thousand years. Do you truly believe the destruction of a little necklace would be the end of me? Oh how naïve you all are. One too many movies with happy endings I think. You never know what could happen next." The Evil Spirit laughed.

"No, this can't be happening! You…You're not real! You don't control me anymore! Y-You-!" Ryou immediately self-acknowledged his extreme rise in volume and immediately jumped up and slammed the door behind him. "You're not in control anymore, your spirit is gone!"

The Spirit smirked, "My, my, look who grew a pair. And that perceptiveness, who knew that you actually had a brain in that pretty little head? Gods know I never saw it when I was in there. But yes you're right, in physical spirit I am not entirely present, but that doesn't make me any less real. I am here because of you! Because you will me to be!"

"No! That's a lie! I would never want you here! You can't control my life anymore! Get out! Get out! Get out of my head!" he wailed, closing his hands over his ears and crawling into a fetal position to block out the voice. "Goawaygoawaygoawaygoawaygoawaygoawaygoaway GO AWAY!"

Ryou didn't know how long he stayed like that. It felt like hours but, it surely only could've been a couple of minutes. He finally straightened himself and looked around the room. The Spirit had completely vanished without a trace it was just Ryou alone in his game room. With a muffled beeping noise. What _was_ that noise? And for god's sake what was that awful burning smell? His eyes widened and he immediately jumped up and busted through the door, only to be met with a barrage of black smoke.

"Amane!" he shouted, running through the smoke and into the kitchen, its source.

"Oh no oh no oh no!" Amane panicked, trying to hit out the fire in the pan with a towel.

She was yanked out of the kitchen by her brother who immediately rushed back in with the fire extinguisher, shooting it at the pan liable for the smoke. After snuffing out the flame he scanned the kitchen, verifying that it was only the one fire. He rushed over and opened all the kitchen windows, waving out the smoke.

"Amane, open up all the windows!" Ryou directed, "And then get back here with some fans!"

Half an hour later, the Bakura siblings stood cleaning up the kitchen together, the elder scrubbing the fire-extinguishing foam from the stove and floor and younger washing it from the pan and tea kettle tearfully.

"So, care to tell me why you decided to almost burn down the apartment?" Ryou asked.

Amane flushed in embarrassment, scrubbing the pan with even greater vigor, "… I wanted to make you lunch."

Ryou sighed, "Oh Amane, you are good at so many things, but you know cooking has never-"

He found himself unable to continue the way he intended as he analyzed her face, noticing the way her lip unconsciously quivered and her eyes attached themselves to her feet in shame, "Has never…. Not been one of those skills you're good at."

Amane looked up to her brother in pleased surprise.

"But even for you being such a great cook, you're still very new to Japanese cooking, there's a lot of technique involved." He said, panicking as he saw Amane's somber look returning, "B-But I'd be happy to teach you! We can cook together sometime!"

"Okay…Yeah!" Amane said excitedly, "I'm sorry again, about causing so much trouble and making a mess."

"It's alright Amane. You just scared me more than anything. I was worried that you may have been hurt." He said, patting her head before turning to the counter, "At any rate, now that all the ingredients I need are out, I can make breakfast and your lunch-"

"But nii-chan! I wanted to make **your** lunch!" Amane whined.

"O-okay," he said, not at all used to this kind of loving attention, "Why don't you make something simple then? Something you know? Like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?"

"No way! Look I got everything out for rolled omelets, daikon mochi, and rice balls! You could start teaching me now!"

"I don't know…" he said, scratching the back of his neck nervously.

"Oh pretty please!" she begged, flashing him her impenetrable puppy dog eyes.

"Oh okay fine. But go get dressed first, I'll make some breakfast and then we'll start." He sighed, noting to make himself a _very_ big breakfast.

"Yay! Seifuku! Seifuku! Japan is awesome!" she sung before skipping out of the room.

* * *

Ryou's car pulled into the parking lot of high school ever so familiar. It almost hurt him to see it. But not Amane.

She stared at the towering building, showered in cherry blossoms and the spring time of youth in awe. There it was! A real Japanese school! With real Japanese students! And her real first day alone in Japan! It was going to be amazing, she had to start now!

"Come on nii-chan! Let's go, let's go!" she shouted eagerly.

"Okay, okay just let me park." He laughed, pulling into a spot.

Amane didn't even wait for the car to turn off before hurling herself out the door and towards the front gate.

"Amane! Wait!" Ryou shouted, rushing out of the car after her, almost forgetting to lock it.

But ignored he was, for full speed Amane ran through the throngs of students, earning startled gasps from new peers and disapproving looks from their parents as she squealed at the top of her lungs, "This is amazing!"

"A-Amane look out!" Ryou shouted after he, trying desperately to keep up.

His warning fell on deaf ears. Amane was too far gone in her own excitement. Everything was what she dreamed it'd be. She knew she looked smoking in her uniform, the cherry blossoms were falling like they did in the animes, the school building was tall and prestigious-looking, it was the perfect place for a brand new high school romantic comedy! Although, she couldn't help wondering when she was going to see a guy that was cute enough that she could "accidentally" run into. Oh well! It was just the first day, nothing could stop her now—!

"Amane!"

She suddenly found herself on the ground, stomach and rear end immediately sore from the impact. "Owwww."

She looked in front of her to check if who she had bumped into was okay, only to be met with a pair of overly-shined, Italian-suede loafers, just barely peeking out of the legs of a white custom-fit Dulce and Gabbana suit. Oh, that was just the way she liked her Italian-suede loafers. Her eyes followed up the suit pants, up those legs that ran for miles and even higher up his broad, fit torso, she hadn't even seen the man's face and she already speculated that he was a beauty. Upon locking with his cold, beautiful blue eyes, framed by luscious brown locks on a perfectly chiseled canvas, she realized that she was right. He was gorgeous. No more than that. This man was a god! This was it, this was her moment. It was time for her doki-doki powers to go nuclear.

She instantly activated her foolproof Fall-In-Love-With-Me pose, chin down, eyes wide and looking up with batting lashes and gleaming innocence in her pupils, her lower lip slightly pouted and quivering, eyebrows raised, ankles splayed wide with her knees closed tight—one leg a bit crossed over the other to protect her modesty (she was going for you-know-you-want-me shoujo manga fan service here, not free show, classless, ecchi pantie shots!), her arms supporting her far behind her back and completely locked in order to showcase the vast wealth of her chest, and last but not least a helpless aura of "hot damn" cuteness that were she indeed in an anime, there'd be sparkles, twirling roses, and classical musical galore. She could already feel the crowd of hormonal high school boys crowding around—instantly in love.

She whimpered out in a bedroom voice she had practiced routinely since she had gone through puberty, "O-Ow that hurt…"

Amane could practically feel the rapid heartbeats of the surrounding adolescents as each and every one of them fell under her spell—but there was just one that she was interested in. This blue-eyed man stared at her for a moment—seemingly interested.

Oh yeah. He was all hers now.

But then something horribly unexpected happened.

He scoffed, "Pft, idiot." And walked away.

Amane could only muster a squeak as she watched him with a gaping jaw. She felt her very being withering away from embarrassment and rejection.

"Seto! That wasn't nice at all! A-Are you okay?"

She was so preoccupied in her shock and wallowing in rejection that she barely even noticed the hand extended to help her. "H-huh?"

"I-I asked if you were okay. You slammed into my brother pretty hard after all." He laughed a bit, blushing as he looked down at her innocent form once more, "C-Can I help you up—um…?"

Amane took a good look at him. He was pretty cute in that trying-to-be-rugged-but-actually-a-sweetheart-boy-lolita kind of way with long black hair tied back into a messy ponytail, blue-grey eyes (not as piercingly beautiful as the other's but still nice), and remaining baby fat in his heavily blushing cheeks. He wasn't exactly her type but she supposed he had the potential for hotness in a few years, especially with a brother like that! And he was such a sweetie, he may just work for a college romance!

"Amane! And thank you!" she chirped, taking his offered hand and standing up, only to wish she'd stayed on the ground as she, at 160 centimeters was staring down at him.

Okay. Yeah. Yeah, no.

"Amane! I lost you in the crowd for a while! Are you alright?!" Ryou called, breaking through the now dissipating crowd of hormonal, now-infatuated boys.

"I'm fine." she insisted.

"Bakura-san?"

Ryou took notice of the familiar Kaiba brother, "Ah! Mokuba-kun! It's been a while."

"Yeah it has! But what are you doing here? Don't tell me you had to repeat the grade!" Mokuba asked.

"Oh no, no, I wasn't _that_ truant." Although close to, he thought, "I'm actually hear for my little sister's Entrance Ceremony."

"No way! This is your sister? I didn't know you had a sister! I'm entering school today and my brother's here too! Hold on I'll go get him!"

"Yes please!" Amane encouraged.

"Oh no please—!" Ryou started.

"Hey Seto! Hold on a minute!" Mokuba called after the brunette.

"-don't."

This was not going to be good Although Kaiba wasn't on especially bad terms with Yugi or his friends anymore, his relationship with Ryou was a completely different story. It was _his_ evil spirit that kidnapped Mokuba on multiple occasions after all. While the younger Kaiba had understood that it wasn't Ryou's fault, the elder had been much less than forgiving.

Amane elbowed him in the ribs. "Ow! Amane!"

"You're friends with that kid's hunk of a brother and you've got me hanging out with Pencil Head and the Labrador?!" she cried.

"W-Well Kaiba and I aren't exactly friends and hey what's wrong with Honda and Jounouchi?" he asked.

"Oi Bakura!"

The siblings turned to the familiar voice and speak of the dog, there stood Jounouchi dressed in an oil covered service station uniform and backwards cap.

At a private school's very formal entrance ceremony.

Ryou sweatdropped and Amane shot the elder an "I told you so" look.

"J-Jounouchi-kun…" Ryou breathed, at loss for words, "W-what are you doing here?"

"Taking Shizuka-chan to school of course! I just got off from the graveyard shift though so I didn't have time to change." he laughed.

It was then that Ryou noticed the soft-spoken Shizuka standing prim and proper next to her boisterous and disheveled brother.

"Long time no see Bakura-kun." she said, with a timid smile.

"Yeah." he replied, "I heard that you were starting high school this year but I had no idea you were going to Domino."

"Yeah we didn't wanna jinx it by saying anything too soon but mom finally agreed to let Shizuka stay with me here in Domino—especially since I got a place away from the old man." Jounouchi explained.

"Well that's great! But aren't you a little worried since you're sharing an apartment with Honda-kun?" Ryou asked.

"Of course not! I trust my little sister and best friend with my life!" he replied heroically before leaning in to whisper to him, "And I also installed six different types of alarm systems in Shizuka's room."

"Got it." he whispered back before turning to Amane, "Oh sorry I'm being rude. Amane, this is-"

"Is that an Arashi patch on your bag?!" Amane fangirled.

"Yeah! I love Arashi! I didn't know they were popular in America!" Shizuka fangirled right back.

"Oh they're not, but I still love them! Be honest, how hot is Jun Matsumoto!?"

"Pretty hot, but I actually prefer Satoshi Ohno." she giggled.

"What?! You weirdo!" Amane laughed and immediately threw an arm around the girl who had just officially become her new best friend. "I'm Amane Bakura!"

"Shizuka Kawai!"

The two older siblings sweatdropped.

"Well would you look at that. Jounouchi's a gas pumper and still in high school. Surprise, surprise. Although quite impressive…for a dog." Kaiba said as he was towed by Mokuba back to the group.

"Kaibaaaaa." Jounouchi growled.

Amane's eyes immediately turned to big pumping hearts as she squealed, "Kaiba-kun!"

Kaiba glanced at Ryou and glared before turning to Mokuba, "There I socialized with the cheerleaders. Can we leave now?"

"Well the entrance ceremony does look like it's about to start…You, Jounouchi and Bakura-san should all sit together and then Bakura-chan and I-oh Shizuka-chan you're here too! The three of us will go line up with the other students!" Mokuba suggested.

None of the sibling chaperones were anywhere near enthusiastic by the suggestion but went along with it nonetheless.

* * *

"... As a student body we work together like a well-oiled machine, constantly tuned and adjusted by our faculty."

Kaiba, Ryou, and Jounouchi sat in the center of the front parents' row of the plastic chairs lined up in the school gymnasium for the Entrance Ceremony. Of course the dragging thirty-minute speech full of over-used analogies and boot-licking school patriotism by the student body president up on stage did nothing to ease the boredom and awkwardness Ryou felt. He blinked and caught himself before he could yawn and fall asleep. Jounouchi was doing a less than adequate job at the same task as he snored loudly and drooled on Ryou's shoulder. He snuck an awkward glance at Kaiba who sat stoically and with perfect posture, unfazed by the overly-passionate student body president's boring and generic speech or the numerous photographers surrounding him. He then looked back to Jounouchi with mild disgust at the blonde's fountain of slobber before meeting Ryou's gaze and glaring accordingly.

"Just so you know," Kaiba leaned over and whispered, causing Ryou to jump slightly in surprise, "The fact that my little brother seems have taken a liking to you and your sister does not mean that I have. I'm not so ignorant to deny that what happened with the Millennium Items and your threat to my brother's and my safety was definitely something beyond our understanding, nor do I think you are directly to blame. But I do believe that there is a lack of self-control and strength within you for letting that happen so I still don't trust you, and I will be keeping an eye on you and your sister. Got it?"

Ryou gulped, "Y-yes."

"And now our First Year Representative, Mokuba Kaiba, will make a speech." the Principle announced, earning the expected loud applause of the audience.

"Good. Now wake up your mutt, I don't want him showing my brother disrespect." Kaiba said, returning to his original indifferent position.

Ryou shrunk down into his seat, took a side glance at Jounouchi, and then kicked him in the shin to wake him. "Nyeah—Jinzo attack!"

* * *

"Jeez two entrance ceremonies in one day, I am beat!" Jounouchi said as he cracked his back. "Oi Bakura? You sure you're not gonna go order anything?"

Ryou, Jounouchi, and Honda sat in a quaint little cafe on the university's campus. "No, it's alright, I have a box lunch."

"How did Shizuka-chan look in her uniform? Gorgeous right?! An angel in seifuku?!" Honda demanded. "She just got in to Domino this morning so I didn't get to see her, or even smell her!"

"You know Honda you're an adult now. It's not only creepy but illegal to be so obsessed with my sister." Jounouchi remarked.

"I can't help it Jounouchi! She's my angel! My life's one true love!"

"What about Miho?!" Jounouchi demanded.

"... The true heart's desire is an ever moving target Jounouchi."

"Oh shut up!"

Ryou rolled his eyes and looked out the window of the cafe. He wasn't in high school anymore. It was an odd experience, seeing the different entrance ceremonies in one day. High school had so much conformity, so much formality and structure. Here there were no school uniforms or certain order of classes. It didn't matter how long your hair was or if you held someone's hand in the middle of class. It was the individual's decision. Everyone was an individual with the ability to choose their own path… The only problem was that Ryou had no idea which path to choose. He had spent most of his developmental years trapped inside his soul room, he didn't know what he wanted to do with his life or even what he liked to do. He had no idea. But everyone else did.

Immediately after graduation, Anzu Mazaki moved straight to New York City as she had always planned. She didn't get into Juilliard, but NYU Tisch was hardly a disappointing back up for dance. School hadn't started over in America yet, so she was spending all of her time in private dance studios, master classes, and even landed a few spots on community dance teams. Yugi, with his status as King of Games, meant he could play and work anywhere so he followed Anzu there and the two were living together. Ryou had most recently heard that he was being approached by numerous gaming companies to beta test their products in between coming out the champion of numerous national and even international tournaments. He talked to the Ishtars a bit more frequently than he would've expected for how little he was actually involved with them during Battle City. They were enjoying being filthy rich on the surface world from generations of ancient heritage and endowments and were big givers to the historical and archaeological communities as well as sponsors to numerous museums. Both Kaiba and Ryuji Otogi were doing as expected of genius prodigy entrepreneurs and throwing themselves into their respective businesses—finding no use for college education when they had already made their shiny pennies with ease. As for Jounouchi, he had his own successful dueling career going on, the whole college thing was more or less a stipulation enforced by his mother in order for Shizuka to live with him. So it seemed that it was just Honda and himself who hadn't found their niche.

"So I think this is as good a time as any to make an announcement." Honda said.

"Huh? What's up buddy?" Jounochi asked.

"Well, the thing is, as much as I loved the adventures we all went on, and I wouldn't trade them for the world, the truth is that I really screwed around in high school. But not anymore. Of course I'm still going to hang out with you guys and our friendship won't ever fade, but I've realized that I really need to buckle down. So Jounouchi, I may not be able to make every dueling competition or help save the world in these coming years. I hope you don't mind." Honda said. "I need to start pursuing my own dreams. I hope you understand."

"Of course I do buddy." Jounouchi replied, "So what are these dreams of yours?"

"I want to help people. I want to make the world a better safer place in more ways than just cheering you guys on when you play life or death card games. I want to stop those evils at the source. I've decided to study forensics and become a police officer."

Ouch. So Ryou really was the odd one out after all.

"That's really great man. Just don't ever arrest me alright?" Jounouchi joked.

"As long as you don't break any laws I won't have to!"

"Are you saying you'd arrest your best friend?!"

"Jounouchi the thing about justice is…"

Ryou reached into his bag and grabbed the sloppily wrapped bento prepared by his sister. He smiled half-heartedly as he tuned out his friends' bickering unwrapped it. An evil aura emitted from the lunch box as he opened it, but he didn't focus on it. He couldn't.

Once again, he was omitted from the group, of course this was just on a mental level, he was closer to Jounouchi and Honda than ever and he knew that there was nothing wrong with it. After all, that was why people went to college! To figure out what they wanted to do! But still...It made him feel even less like an individual, even more left out. He hoped that that would change soon. He took a bite of the rolled omelet absentmindedly.

"Bakura-kun are you okay? You look sick."

Ryou barely managed to choke down the peanut butter smeared sashimi role packed so deceptively pretty into his lunchbox. He pushed the bento away not nearly soon enough after. Well, it was the thought that counted.

He ended up ordering some food from the cafe after all.

* * *

 **A/N: Please favorite, follow, and review! And check out my blog sports-shounen-scenarios for more Yu-Gi-Oh! (among other fandoms) goodness!**


	4. Particular Horrors

Chapter 4: Particular Horrors

There were horrors, horrors everywhere, but no people. No one to be seen.

Hell, the afterlife he was sure he had been condemned to, was supposed to be an individual's worst nightmares, their cruelest tortures all at once for eternity and this was the best it could throw at him? Maybe the fact that he could hear nothing but screams yet no one to torture was his own torment—the eternal absence of his life's one true purpose in order to drive him insane forever.

Well it was too late for that. He had no sanity to begin with after all.

Maybe it was something deeper.

That the fact that there was no one around was a refection of some deep down fear of loneliness. Fuck he hoped not. What a fucking joke that would be.

That wasn't to say that there was no physical pain inflicted on this now nameless spirit—oh there was plenty of flesh-searing, mind-numbing pain…

But he loved it.

He ate that shit right up. The pain was a drug, a sweet, unearned reward for his failures, for his sins. A validation of his existence, proof that he was still real. And so at each strike of pain, he had to ask,

Was this it? Was this all the divine morality could throw at him?

Was the world and life so meaningless that Ra, or God, or karma, or whatever ruling laws of the universe just took no interest in reprimanding or inflicting true punishment on one of the most inherently evil beings to walk the earth? What was the point of even being created then?! To bring together some over-privileged motley crew of after-school specialesque life lessons and outrageous hairstyles?! Was this manifestation of human anger and misery's only true purpose just to fail?!

No!

He was too great for that! He was supposed to rule the world as Pharaoh! He was supposed to throw the world in to chaos! Right? RIGHT?!

As he allowed the shadow leeches to latch onto him without resistance, he wondered if Hell had perhaps done its purpose of breaking him after all.

* * *

"On your mark!"

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, blocking out all the unnecessary sights and sounds of the school track. The whistles, the shouts of coaches, the grunts and compressions of high jumpers and their landing cushions. The waves of sand splashed from the shot put, long jumps and discus were all a million miles away. There was just one voice and one gun.

"Get set!"

She was in position, the one she always felt so comfortable, so natural in. The teeth of the coral track digging into her palms, the support of the starting block underneath her heels, the scent of rubber tickling her nose It was like a good morning stretch and a shot of divine energy straight into her veins.

This was Amane Bakura's zone.

The pop of the starting pistol and the runners were off. The wind whipped past Amane so quickly, so intensely, it was like she had entered a vortex, transporting her to her happiest natural habitat, an element of athletic euphoria. She was flying—In her own mind and well past the other runner of the 200-meter dash. The knowledge that her chest would be sore in the morning from forgetting a sports bra didn't cause her to anticipate, the fact that she had midterms to study for didn't cause her to hesitate, and nothing in the world could ever cause her to necessitate anything else for true happiness than when she was running. She crossed the finish line a good 50 meters before the other opponents.

But her momentum did not stop there, she made her way over to the slender, scribbling form of the team record-keeper Mizuki Shinohara, "How'd I do?!"

"Twenty-three point nineteen seconds!" he announced happily.

"That slow huh? I'm losing my edge." She huffed.

"Slow?!" he sputtered, "That's—!"

"That's a school record isn't it?"

The two turned, finding the towering figure of the team captain and nationally-ranked sprinter, Shunsuke Miyamoto.

"Hi Captain!" Amane chirped.

"Yes it is!" Mizuki answered immediately, "Not just that, it's pretty close to the national record! Shave off a couple seconds and it's close to yours…s-sir."

"No kidding?! Who'd have thought the captain was so slow?!" she laughed, immediately earning a panicked glare from Mizuki.

"Hey you—!"

"Calm down Mizuki. These are the type of athletes we want on this team after all. With you on the team Bakura-san, I'd say we have a pretty good chance of making and taking nationals." He said.

Amane's eyes widened, "Does that mean I'm going to Nagoya Qualifiers!"

"We'll be making our decision in about three weeks at our practice meet with Saikoro High, but if you continue with this kind of progress, you'll be a shoe-in. Just one thing, get into your starting position."

Amane nodded, kneeling down at the nearby block and raising her hips up, ready to run. Captain Miyamoto followed her over, admiring the curvature of her start from behind quite longer than was necessary before settling his hands on her hips and pelvic bones.

"Do your take for me."

She did as told, allowing him to reel her back and repeating the action about three times before he leaned down to her ear.

"You're slouching a bit in the hips at the take off. Just barely, but enough to keep your foundation a bit shaky. Keep them sturdy and secure. Always remember to run tall." He breathed before patting her lower back and allowing her to stand, "Good job today. Your done."

"Thank you Captain! See you tomorrow!" she smiled and bowed before booking it off the field to her friends in the bleachers.

"Captain...Are you sure about this? We've never taken freshmen to Nagoya." Mizuki said, "Like ever."

"I'm aware." He said, hands tingling in the aftermath of such favorable contact, "This may just be an exception."

Amane waved as she came closer to Shizuka sitting at the bottom bleachers, towel over her shoulders and water bottle in hand as she talked to the apparent, very ready to leave Mokuba, "Hey guys!"

Shizuka looked to her and smiled back, "Hey Amane-chan!"

Mokuba, who had been watching her out the corner of his eyes the whole time, looked less pleased.

"How'd your practice go Shizuka-chan?" Amane asked.

"Oh okay… Nothing impressive. Just the average height for my height and experience." She said, shuffling her feet before looking to Amane in excitement, "No like you, leaving those third years in the dust! That's amazing!"

"Nah it was nothing!" she laughed before turning to Mokuba, "And what's got you lookin' so grumpy Mr. Kaiba?"

"Your captain certainly seems to like you." He pouted.

Amane raised a brow, "Oh come one Mokuba-kun, it's not like that. He was helping me with my start. I've been doing track since I was six, I know how it works. He needed to feel what my muscles were doing, there was nothing pervy about it."

"Maybe not his hands, but you didn't see the way he was looking at you." Said Mokuba, crossing his arms even tighter.

"If even he was looking, that's not so bad." Shizuka noted, "Don't you think he's pretty cute Amane-chan?"

Indeed she did. From his broad shoulders, towering height, gorgeous, wind-blown light brown locks, intensely handsome hazel eyes, and some of the most immaculately sculpted muscles she'd ever seen on a runner, third year Shunsuke Miyamoto was very well known Domino High heartthrob, known to receive over three love confessions a day—even from other schools. It was even rumored that girls that had seen him at meets half-way across the country had flown into Domino in order to ask him out. He was fun, kind, handsome, and immensely talented. But…

"I'm pretty done with dating athletes." Amane said, "Like I said, I've been doing this since I was six. They're all I've dated and I'll be honest, they're not nearly as great as they seem. Right more I'm more into the whole, intelligent hottie thing. The ones with substance. I'd even go so far as to say I'm getting into the megane type."

Mokuba immediately perked up, "I-I wear reading glasses!"

Amane laughed, "You're so funny Mokuba-kun! So are we ready to go?"

Shizuka, patted the now-defeated Mokuba's back comfortingly, "You don't wanna change or anything?"

"Nah, I wanna make it to the bakery by my house before all the cornets are gone so we should get going!" said Amane.

"Um yeah about going to your house Amane…" Mokuba started.

"What?" Shizuka asked.

"Well my brother wants to drive me to your house, he's just not totally comfortable with me walking alone in the city you know?" he lied, "But he could give you two a ride too obviously-!"

Amane's eyes widened and she squealed, "What?! A limo ride with Kaiba-kun?! Count me in!"

Mokuba frowned a bit at her abundance of enthusiasm, "A-are you sure? I mean if I argued enough I could probably get out of it-"

"Are you kidding?! Vegetable curry for lunch, horror movies with my friends, and now a limo ride with your fine piece of ass brother?! This has the workings of the best day ever!" she practically screamed before falling into a dazed fantasy mode, "Oh what goes on behind closed partitions…."

Shizuka giggled, "We'll be with you too you know. Just where do you think the partition is?"

"Whatever you two can sit in the front or watch!" She gasped suddenly, "He can NOT see me all sweaty and gross like this! Unless he's into that… Mokuba!" she shouted, pulling him close by the collar "Is he into that?!"

"I-I don't know!" he blushed.

"I don't want to take the chance then. To the showers! And then, the Kaiba car!" she announced triumphantly before sprinting to the locker room.

Shizuka smiled sympathetically at Mokuba before following, holding up a hand to say it'd only be five minutes.

Ryou hummed as he moved gracefully through the kitchen—hopping from one dish preparation to the next. After making sure the tea on the stove was started and arranging the rei shabu on a big serving plate, he turned his attention back to the onigiri he was wrapping.

Okay yes, right now Ryou Bakura looked the exact equivalent of a housewife with his hair in a ponytail and his "Duel the Cook" apron—a gift sent to him by Yugi and Anzu just the previous month—but he didn't care. He was content and relaxed, a state that had been harder and harder for him to achieve as of late due to the difficulty of juggling university, a busser job, and trying to be completely involved in his adolescent ward's life. That was a lot for an eighteen-year-old to handle! Not to mention that certain…occurrences had been becoming more and more frequent. Ryou didn't know if they were hallucinations or if the Spirit of the Ring somehow had left a part of himself within Ryou, but whatever it was, it wasn't pleasant.

He was snapped from his thoughts by the doorbell. He raised an eyebrow. Really? She forgot her key again? Ryou was discovering more and more everyday how amazing it was that Amane actually managed to do things like make it to Japan in one piece or tie her shoes on her own. She was absentminded and of course he loved her, but it made it so that he couldn't help but worry about her even more. He quickly finished up the rice ball he was working on before hurrying to the door, wiping his hands on his apron as he scurried. The doorbell rang again and he sped up his pace.

He opened the door with a smile, genuinely happy—despite Amane's ditziness around company—to have someone to get him out of his own head, "Welcome ho-!"

Oh.

Well that didn't help matters.

Ryou found himself face to shoulder—and then face when he finally looked up—with Seto Kaiba.

Mokuba and Shizuka stood smiling in front of him. "Excuse our interruption!"

"N-Not at all please come in." he stammered, too intimidated by the brunette's hard glare to take notice of the teenagers suddenly running into his apartment and tossing their shoes haphazardly by the door.

"U-um where's-"

Kaiba turned around to present the heart-eyed Amane latched onto his back with her face nuzzling his neck. He hadn't the politeness to hold her up—Ryou knew that much—but Amane remained attached to the rich giant by the sheer strength of her arms and legs coiling around his waist and torso alone. His eyes widened.

"I-I'm so sorry!" he stammered, instantly detaching Amane from Kaiba's body and placing her on the apartment side of the door, "Amane, go start your studying with your friends, okay? I'll bring you some snacks in a minute."

She pouted before obeying and hurrying down the hallway to her friends, but not before blowing Kaiba a kiss and reciting her final goodbye, "Until we meet again, Kaiba-chin!"

"Amane shoes!" Ryou called after her, her loafers shooting out from the hall and ricocheting off the wall a moment later. He then turned back to Kaiba with a blush at the behavior, "W-would you like to come in?"

"Naturally. That's why I'm here." he answered, stepping through the doorway and stepping out of his shoes neatly.

Ryou closed the door behind the stoic C.E.O. "S-So um, could I get you some tea? Or set aside some rice balls for you? Or maybe I can make you something more decadent-"

"Just go on and finish your snack-making, you can make me some black tea when you get the chance." Kaiba answered.

"Al-Alright, um right this way." Ryou said awkwardly as he led Kaiba into the kitchen and returned to setting up the snack tray for his adolescent guests.

The two remained in silence as Ryou worked. It unnerved him much more than any actual conversation with the young billionaire could.

"S-So," he broke the silence, "W-What brings you here Kaiba-san?"

"I told you that I'd be keeping an eye on you. I'm simply fulfilling that promise." he answered, "I can't say even slightly that I'm satisfied with Mokuba's relationship with your or that dog's younger sisters, but I really can't help that without due reason. So I've come to observe your homelife to make sure that my brother will at least be safe in your care and company."

"I-I see." Ryou said nervously, as he shakily poured tea into the three neatly arranged cups on the tray and replaced the kettle with one of black tea, "W-Well I could give you a t-tour if you'd like. I'll just take these to the kids and—um, d-does that sound good?"

Ryou honestly couldn't tell if Kaiba was intentionally glaring at him or if that was just his at-rest face. He honestly didn't want to try and find out. Either way it scared the living daylights out of him.

"That sounds fine." Kaiba finally responded.

"V-Very well." Ryou replied, setting up another tea pot on the stove and grabbing the snack tray, "This way then."

He led Kaiba out of the kitchen, through the living room and down the hall, swiftly kicking Amane's shoes into his bedroom and pointing out each obvious room as such. He pushed open the cracked door to Amane's room with his foot, allowing the teens' laughter to flood out.

"Negative three Mouba-kun, not positive! Penalty game!" Amane laughed loudly and stepped over the kotatsu to grab Mokuba harshly on the nose.

"Ow Ow Ow Ow Ow!" He cried, causing Ryou to shrink under Kaiba's glare.

Ryou cleared his throat, earning the trio's attention. Amane gasped in excitement, "Kaiba-chin! You came back to me!"

"Sorry to interrupt your, um, studying but I made you guys some snacks " Ryou explained, setting the snack tray on a spot clear of books and papers in the center of the table, "I also made some rei shabu, there's rice in the cooker, and cold soma for soup when you're ready for some actual dinner."

"Thank you Bakura-san!" Shizuka and Mokuba said, the latter rubbing his nose as he did so.

"Thanks onii-chan. " Amane said dazedly, staring dreamily at Kaiba in the doorway.

"Of course, I'm here if you need me." He smiled as he left and brought the door back to its propped open state.

He turned to the still glaring Kaiba and laughed awkwardly, "Heh heh heh kids right? Heh, heh, h—this way."

Ryou walked through the rest of the apartment with Kaiba—uncomfortably trying his best to start conversations with the duel champion with little stories here and there. He seemed to be neither interested nor especially offended by them or by any of the rooms he saw, which was a good sign…

Right?

"A-And that's it." Ryou said as they returned to the living room, "So that's the place."

Kaiba looked at him skeptically before pointing to the closed doors next to the hallway that Ryou had thought he'd done so well to skip over at the beginning of the tour. "What about that room?"

His eyes widened as he looked at the doors and back to Kaiba, "Oh there's nothing interesting in that room… J-just a game room, y-you have much better equipment and such y-you wouldn't be interest- w-w-wait!"

Ryou attempted to block the brunette in a panic but was too slow, the doors to his Monster World room were already open. He rubbed the back of his neck to cope with the embarrassment of its Monster World contents. "Umm, w-well this is a bit-"

"Obsessive." Kaiba said without facing him.

Ryou blinked.

"Y-You have a jet shaped like a Blue Eyes White Dragon," he immediately panicked as Kaiba shot him a bone-rattlingly terrifying glare, "W-Which isn't obsessive at all! I-It's um…"

Kaiba ignored his stammering and entered the room, taking a good look at the game board and large glass cases of custom game pieces, "This is a lot more in-depth than most Monster World boards."

"Y-Yeah I-um, I made it myself—w-wait. You know about Monster World?!" Ryou asked.

"I'm the founder and C.E.O of one of the number one gaming technology empires in the world. I know about Monster World." Kaiba replied.

"R-R-Right. I figured it's just, you're so involved with Duel Monsters that I-"

"Well aren't you?" Kaiba asked, eying Ryou's apron. "You were a Battle City Quarterfinalist after all."

He blushed and immediately tore it off, throwing it over the desk chair, "W-well I like the game, but my participation in Battle City wasn't exactly, well, um, voluntary. But you don't like hearing about that stuff, the point is that Monster World has always been my favorite."

As he spoke, Kaiba continued making his observations around the room. He stopped in front of Ryou's work table and picked the Thief King Bakura piece up, rolling it around and eying it with an unwelcome sense familiarity.

"This one…" he started.

Ryou's eyes widened, "Oh-Oh that one I just recently, um, it's very fragile so if you could um-?"

"One of the appeals of Monster World is how in-depth the simulation goes, even to designing your own characters. But players are only provided with a finite amount of options for character designs, this is completely custom. A lot of them are." Kaiba commented, taking a good look at the model cluster derived from Ryou's Monster World game with Yugi and the Spirit of the Millennium Puzzle.

"Almost all of them are custom actually. I-I um, make them myself and then cheat the logarithms, and-um, hack and mod the system to put them in the game." Ryou explained with an unfamiliar twinge of pride.

"That's an extremely difficult logarithm to mimic… More difficult than the holographic technology in Duel Monsters and Dungeon Dice Monsters combined since it's such an old system and often incompatible with modern computers and hacking." Kaiba said, seemingly interested.

"I-I guess it is, but I guess I like playing around with the old school stuff." Ryou said, shrinking back into his shyness and scratching the back of his neck as Kaiba observed the figurines for a moment more.

He stood up straight and walked towards the exit, "I've seen all I need to for now. A car will be here for Mokuba at midnight."

Ryou's eyes widened in surprise. "R-Really? Does that mean you trust me now?"

Kaiba smirked, "Hmph, you wish. Keep up this work of yours with Monster World, you just may have some potential in the gaming industry. But don't let that get to your head. Your choice of friends still makes you a loser."

"W-Wait!" Ryou called, chasing after him.

Kaiba turned and raised an eyebrow.

"Y-Your um, your tea?"

"Drink it yourself." he said with amusement and left.

Ryou blinked, standing in his room long after Kaiba had left. He looked down at his watch. It was almost five, way too late in the afternoon for him to be drinking caffeine. He wasn't going to be drinking that black tea! He'd made a fresh pot for nothing!

…

Seto Kaiba was kind of a dick.

* * *

It was about ten now. Amane, Mokuba, and Shizuka had long abandoned studying for their other planned activity of the night: Horror Movie Marathon!

Shizuka and Mokuba screamed and grabbed onto Amane as the long haired yurei crawled out of the television in the movie.

Amane laughed at their reaction, "Really?! You think that's scary?! We need to watch some American horror movies sometime—HOLY CRAP WHAT'S WITH HER FACE?!"

Ryou rolled his eyes and smiled, having poked his head out from his game room to check on the trio. He returned to his desk, finishing up the annotation of _The Tale of Genji_ for his Classical Literature class. He found himself lately spending all his free time in this room, even when he wasn't playing Monster World. For some reason he just felt a lot more in his element under the protective, painted eyes of his figurines then in his cold, sleepless bedroom.

…He tried not to think about how much of a serial killer that made him sound like.

The phone rang. He blinked. Who in the world would be calling at this hour of night? The most likely candidates would be Yugi or Anzu—being in America and all-but they had long overcome the phase of not taking into consideration the time differences before calling. So then who-?

"Hello?" Ryou answered the phone hesitantly.

"Heey Ryou-kun!"

Ryou blinked, "M-Marik-san? This is random, I haven't heard from you in while. What's up?"

"Yeah, I've been meaning to call you lately, things have just been pretty hectic in the desert—family problems you know?" Marik said.

"I see." Ryou replied, not quite knowing what else to say. Sure Marik and him had gotten along swimmingly for the rest of the gang's trip to Egypt a few months back and they had managed to keep better contact than he would've expected, but they weren't nearly at the stage to be confiding in each other.

"Hey so there's actually a reason I called." Marik broke the silence.

"And what is that?" Ryou asked.

"Well I'm actually planning on staying in Japan for a while and I know you have an extra room so I was wondering if I could crash at your place for a couple of weeks." Marik requested.

"Oh well, um—that's um-"

"I know it's totally imposing and last minute-"

Yes. Yes, it was absolutely imposing and last minute.

"Oh no I don't mind or anything it's just, well my little sister just moved in and she took that room so I'm afraid I don't really have an open bed for you." Ryou explained.

"I don't mind! You've got a couch right? Or don't you Japanese keep futons? I'm not a private person or anything and I'm not picky. Plus I'm an excellent dish washer and can clean up after myself! You won't even notice that I'm there!" Marik attempted the hard sell.

Ryou sweatdropped, "Well I trust your credibility and all, I just don't know if it's very appropriate to have a single, flowy-haired guy living under the same roof with my teenage sister."

"Hey no need to worry about that! My hair may be flowy but it has its standards! I mean I have standards—morals? Whatever, I won't touch your sister. I promise."

While certainly assuring to Ryou, it wasn't exactly _his_ morals he was worried about as he thought of all the numerous accounts of Amane throwing herself at Kaiba. He shook the thoughts out of his head.

Against his better judgement, he was too polite to turn the Egyptian down.

"You know what? Sure. Of course you can stay here."

"That's great!" Marik cheered.

"Yeah, it should be fun." Ryou said honestly, he had never had a roommate before. Well, technically he did in his own mind, but never one who was actually welcome, "So when will you be here?"

"My flight just got in. Oh! I forgot! That's the other reason I called. My bike's not gonna be here for like another week so I need you to pick me up from Domino City Airport. Try to get here fast alright? There's a bunch of girls staring at me like rapid dogs and I'm starting to fear for my chastity. Ja ne!"

Ryou clutched the phone tightly, his face contorted with such irritation that he was sure that he looked much more akin to his former Dark Half then ever before.

"Kukuku, obnoxious isn't he? Remember I had to share your head and cooperate with that numbskull."

Ryou bolted from the game room, the noise of the door slamming open earning surprised screams from the teens that were so previously engrossed in their film. "Nii-chan! What are you—?!"

The elder Bakura babbled as he hurried to the door, trying to grab his keys and put on his jacket and shoes all at once, "I know that this is totally irresponsible but a friend of mine, who evidently is going to be staying with us a couple of weeks—heads up Amane—is at the airport without a ride and I need to go pick him up before he's torn apart by desperate Japanese girls and before your brother," He gestured to Mokuba, "realizes I left you three alone and punishes me with some particular horrors known only to protective adolescent billionaires. So please make responsible decisions, don't answer the door for anyone, and don't turn on the stove! I'll be right back!"

The teens blinked as they watched the door slam and lock behind the panicking Ryou.

…

"This. Is. PERFECT!" Amane squealed, "I didn't think we'd be able to do this with nii-chan around but now…"

Her eyes narrowed suggestively as she pulled Shizuka and Mokuba close, "We can have some real fun."

Mokuba blushed profusely, "A-Amane-chan! I-I've wanted to ever since we first met but I always thought our first time would be more special, not so rushed, a-and well…alone!"

Amane blinked, "What?"

Mokuba blinked, "What?"

Shizuka held her hand tightly over her mouth, trying desperately to hold in her laughter.

Amane raised an eyebrow, "What are you talking about?"

"What are _you_ talking about?"

Amane looked at him suspiciously for a moment before rushing into her brother's game room, leaving her two friends to listen as she rifled loudly through his belongings. She returned, holding something behind her back.

"I'm talking about this!" Amane said excitedly, showing the two her brother's antique, wooden ouija board, "You two like games right? Well, let's play!"


	5. Help Wanted from a Distressed Damsel

Chapter 5: Help Wanted from a Distressed Damsel

He would have liked to have believed that he would've gone numb by now. And in a since he had. There was no hope, there was nothing to fight for. He was nothing and he was surprisingly satisfied with that. This was the way his world ended, not with a bang but with a whisper. At least he would wither away in pain, the pain of thousands of shadow leeches biting into his flesh—ripping him to bits and consuming him for the rest of eternity. It was a predictable way to go—to have been born from someone else's hatred and to dissolve in someone else's nightmare, someone else's anti-climactic, half-assed Hell. Yes, he could accept this. Fuck, what was he kidding? He didn't have any other choice.

 _Is anyone there?_

What was that?

 _Can anyone hear me?_

 _What was this?_

This indescribable feeling of yearning, of purpose!

It was a feeling he felt around the weak, around the good spirits—around the people whom he was born to break. Oh its presence, its stupidity, just it's innocent aura filled him with such...such ecstasy!

This was his purpose.

HE WAS NOT DONE YET!

"Yeeeesss." he wheezed out as one of the leeches dug into his left eyes socket.

* * *

Amane squeaked and jumped back from the Ouija Board in the center of the room. "Okay which one of you moved it?!"

"I-I didn't." Shizuka whimpered.

"M-Me niether." Mokuba agreed.

"Well I didn't either… Oh my god there's an actual spirit here! This is amazing! Let's ask more questions!" Amane cheered scooching back to the Ouija Board.

Shizuka and Mokuba looked at each other. The former stopped Amane's hand before she could reach the planchette, "I-I don't think we should."

"Why not?! It's just some harmless fun!" Amane asked.

"But it's not! You of all people should know that no good can come from meddling with spirits!" Shizuka cried.

Amane tilted her head and raised a brow, "Why me especially?"

Shizuka and Mokuba looked to each other again in surprise. "W-Well because of your brother." Mokuba answered.

"What does my brother have to do with meddling with spirits? I mean I know that he loves the occult and all that creepy stuff but it's not like he's ever actually contacted a spirit!" she laughed, "Right?"

Both Shizuka and Mokuba looked to each other as they thought the same thing.

She didn't know.

Amane blinked, "Do you two know something that I don't?"

"O-Of course not!" Mokuba defended, "How could we know more about your brother then you?! I mean contacting spirits?! That's just crazy! We were talking about his occult deck in Duel Monsters! A-And the fact that he, and you for that fact, are so into horror movies! R-Right, Shizuka?"

"Y-Yeah… Right!" Shizuka agreed.

Amane looked at the two skeptically before moving the planchette back to the center of the board. "Well then, since I _do_ know more about horror movies and spirits then you two, as you said, I say that we keep playing!"

Mokuba and Shizuka looked to each other hesitantly but, unable to will themselves to leave Amane alone, placed their hands back on the planchette and looked to her to take the lead, "Can we ask you some more questions, spirit?"

The planchette moved painfully slowly to the top of the board. **Yes.**

"Are you a girl?"

 **And to the side. No.**

"So a boy then?" Amane asked almost excitedly.

 **Yes.**

"Are you hot?"

"Amane!" Shizuka scolded.

"It's a viable question!" she laughed.

 **Yes.**

Amane smirked, "See, he gets me. What is your name?"

He had more to say then.

 **N.**

 **O.**

 **N.**

 **E.**

Amane's brow furrowed, "None? Your name is None?"

 **No.**

"Do you mean that you don't have a name?" Shizuka breathed.

"Hey, there you go Shizuka-chan!" Amane encouraged.

 **N.**

 **O.**

 **T.**

 **N.**

 **O.**

 **W.**

Amane's brow furrowed empathetically almost immediately, "Oh wow, he must not remember it. Something terrible must have happened to him."

"Amane…" Mokuba whined, practically begging her to stop.

But she did not, "Did you go young?"

 **Yes.**

"How did you die?"

Their hands and the planchette began to pick up speed across the board, candle flames flickering as this question obviously brought back old wounds, ancient anger.

 **L.**

 **O.**

 **S.**

 **T.**

Mokuba blinked, "Lost?"

"Maybe he got lost and died." Shizuka suggested.

The planchete immediately moved, shocking them all.

 **No.**

"Then what—?" again it moved, silencing Amane immediately.

 **T.**

 **R.**

 **A.**

 **P.**

 **P.**

 **E.**

 **D.**

Shizuka began to shake, "Amane I really don't like this! I think we need to stop!"

"We can't stop now! It's just getting interesting! Where are you trapped Spirit?" Amane asked eagerly.

 **H.**

 **E.**

 **L.**

 **L.**

"Amane!" Mokuba cried, "It's some sort of demon or something! Let's stop!"

"No, no, no Mokuba-kun, you have to look deeper than that!"

"He said that he was trapped in Hell Amane! What do you think he is?!" Mokuba demanded, immediately standing up.

"And he also said lost! And that he died young! You need to think about this rationally, it's like a detective case Mokuba, like a game! You like games!" Amane said, pulling him back down next to her, "The spirit only has so long and so many letter he can use to give us an answer we can understand, that's why these answers are so short. If he was young and trapped and that's how he died, he may be describing the conditions of the place he as trapped in when he died. A place that was _like_ Hell."

"S-So he was tortured when he died?" Shizuka asked, the words almost making her sick.

"Maybe." Said Amane, "But the thing I'm confused about was that he said lost, but that he hadn't gotten lost when he died. What else could that mean?" Amane stroked her chin contemplatively.

"M-Maybe he lost something. Like a pet, or wallet, or…"

"Or a game!" Amane chirped, the planchette moving so fast to **Yes** now that it very nearly lost their hands.

"Okay so that's right." Said Amane, "So then, who beat you?"

The planchette moved so fast and furiously then that it flew right out from under the teens' hands causing them to scream. They watched in horror as it flew across the board at rapid speed without their guidance.

 **P.**

 **H.**

 **A.**

 **R.**

 **A.**

 **O.**

 **H.**

"Pheh-raaaah—oh! Pharaoh." Amane's head tilted in confusion. "He was beaten by a pharaoh?"

Mokuba's and Shizuka's eyes widened. Mokuba grabbed Amane by the shoulders and dragged her away from the board immediately, "Okay we need to stop this right now! Shizuka-chan turn on the lights I'll blow out the candles!"

"On it!" Shizuka replied as she bolted to the front door and switched the lights back on.

"What are you two doing?!" Amane demanded.

"Amane-chan this is getting dangerous we need to stop!" Mokuba answered.

"What are you talking about? It's just some harmless fu-"

"No Amane! This is not harmless anymore! Not ever! This has never been harmless! Just trust me right now! You don't understand what's going on! This is way beyond your control and we need to stop!"

Her widened eyes from outburst narrowed almost immediately, "Oh. I get it now."

"I'm glad to hear that." Mokuba sighed as he snuffed out the last candle.

"Yeah… I'm sure you are. Since you think I'm an idiot."

"Amane-chan that's not what Mokuba-kun meant-"

"No it's not just what Mokuba meant! It's what everybody meant! I'm just the ditz with the big boobs who can't even tie her own shoes! Because she's happy and optimistic and fun and a little boy crazy she doesn't ever have a clue about what's really going on! She needs to be babied and treated like some damsel in distress! Well you know what?! Yeah, I'm spunky, and pretty, and I'm not the brightest person in the world! But I don't always need to be saved! I can save someone too!" Amane shouted rushing back to the Ouija board, "Spirit! Can I help you?!"

 **She need not even touch the board for to move. Yes.**

"Amane stop!" Shizuka and Mokuba screamed, struggling to drag her away from it, but she held her ground.

"What do you need to help you?!"

One after one, each lightbulb in the living room quickly overheated and exploded, candles relighting themselves in their place, high and fast like fireworks. Hot blue-flamed fireworks. Amane's stomach dropped at each pop and burn swirled around her, and the planchette flew across the board so wrathfully, it ripped the paper off in some placed.

 **O.**

 **U.**

 **Y.**

 **O.**

 **U.**

 **Y.**

 **O.**

 **U.**

 **Y.**

 **O.**

 **U.**

 **Y.**

 **O.**

 **U.**

 **Y.**

 **O.**

 **U.**

 **Y.**

 **O.**

 **U.**

 **Y.**

 **O.**

 **U.**

 **Amane's eyes widened as she deciphered the insanity below her.**

 **Y.**

 **O.**

 **U.**

 **You.**

 **"** **M-Me?' she breathed.**

Suddenly an energy akin to electricity—black in color, thin and surging and aggressive in attack—shot out and enveloped Amane, swirling around her in a vortex of darkness. She could barely hear her friends' distant screams under a deep, powerful, malevolent stream of laughter. She saw it in the distance—a golden glowing eye identical to those on the artifacts her father had all-too-often shown her in his history books, in the necklace she remembered her brother once wore. Her vision expanded, the eye was in the middle of a forehead of someone who's very being dominated everything around him, that radiated absolute power and evil, and struck Amane with an irrevocable fear of which she had never felt the likes of before. She was swathed by such overwhelming submission that as she collapsed she didn't even take notice of how ineffably beautiful the man before her was.

* * *

Ryou bent over to catch his breath as he stopped in front of Marik, who sat with his legs crossed and with a dry martini in his hand at the airport bar, "You're a terrible person. You know that Marik-san?"

Marik blinked, "I'm sorry. Let me buy you a drink for whatever I did wrong?"

The whitette groaned and leaned against the bar, "No, you will not buy me a drink I have to drive. Right now. Come on, let's go."

"Okay just let me finish my drink first!" Marik insisted.

Ryou crossed his arms and tapped his foot as Marik took his sweet time by taking exceedingly time-consuming, yet ridiculously tiny, sips of his cocktail with several moments of staring into nothingness in between.

Slurp.

…

Sluuuuurrp

…

Sluuuuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrr-

"MARIK-SAN!"

He laughed, patting the boy's back playfully, "What? What's the hurry?"

"The hurry is that I had to leave three teenagers alone in my apartment—one of them who just so happens to be Mokuba Kaiba—to come get you! And if Seto Kaiba finds out that I left his little brother alone and oh god if something happens to them—!"

"Ryou-kun! Calm down! I'll go get my bags right now!" Marik said, downing the rest of his drink and hopping off the barstool.

"You haven't even gotten them yet?!" Ryou cried.

"Really Ryou-kun you need to calm down; you've been gone for like twenty minutes—there's no way something bad could've happened in that time span!" Marik assured as he ran off to the direction of the luggage carousel, "I'll be right back!"

"Hurry!" Ryou called after him.

His phone suddenly began to buzz angrily in his pocket. He grabbed it and noticed his home number on the screen. _Oh god._

"Hello—?"

"Bakura-san you need to get home right now!" Shizuka cried in a panic.

"What's wrong?! Where's Amane?! Put Amane on the phone right now!" Ryou demanded.

"Amane-chan! Damn it Amane wake up!" Mokuba screamed in the background.

"Sh-She's unconscious! There was something to do with the Pharaoh—!"

"The Pharaoh?!" Ryou cried.

"I don't know! I don't know what to do! Just please come back!"

And the line went dead.

Ryou stood in shock allowing the phone to slip from his hand. This wasn't happening.

This wasn't happening.

This couldn't possibly be fucking happening!

"Awww, well sure it could. Landlord."

 _"Nii-chan I don't understand! Why are you leaving?! You said that you'd always be here for me, to protect me!"_

 _"_ _That's a bad, bad promise Landlord. How could you ever keep something like that?"_

 _But he did. I did keep it._

 _Amane just couldn't understand back then. That's why he had to leave. So that he could protect her. But she could never understand why._

 _He didn't want her to ever have to._

Marik hurried back to Ryou happily, "Ryou-kun I just got the dirtiest look from the security guard at the carousal—Ryou-kun? Ryou-kun what's wrong?"

He felt the phone slip out of his hand, bits of its plastic casing breaking off and tumbling across the floor.

"A-Amane. She…"

Marik's eyes narrowed seriously, "Ryou what's wrong?"

"Amane's unconscious." He just barely breathed out, Marik's eyes widened, "They said it had something to do with the Pharaoh."

Marik's breath hitched and Ryou's catatonic shock did not yield. The Egyptian grabbed the boy's cell phone, stuffed it in his pocket, and then grabbed his shoulders tightly, pushing him forward.

"Let's go."

"KuKuKu. And do what, praytell?" _he_ whispered into Ryou's ear, keeping his feet rooted.

"Ryou Bakura, your sister needs us, let's go!"

Ryou immediately blinked away his shock, gasping and nearly almost falling as he came to. But he wouldn't let himself down that far. He picked himself up, and stormed forward.

Because she did need him.

She needed him now.

* * *

Ryou slammed the front door open, causing Shizuka and Mokuba to snap away from the unconscious friend they knelt in front of to the door. "Bakura-san!"

He rushed into the apartment, immediately followed by Marik.

"Marik-kun? What are you—?"Mokuba started.

"That's not important right now!" Ryou cried as he saw the young Bakura's clouded, lifeless eyes—an expression far too familiar, "What happened?!"

"W-Well you see we-"

It was then that his peripheral vision caught perhaps the second worst possible object he could've seen in this situation.

"What is that?" he asked darkly.

"B-Bakura-san-" Shizuka whimpered.

"No! Why is that Ouija Board out?! Y-You—don't you know better after all that's happened?!" Ryou practically screamed, unable to fight the tears from falling.

This wasn't supposed to happen! Not to his baby sister! She was supposed to live a happy normal life free of evil spirits and dark magic like this! How could they let this happen?! How could he let this happen?!

"Bakura-san it wasn't our idea! Amane was the one that really wanted to play! W-We tried to stop her—" Shizuka sobbed.

"Well you should've tried harder! You know her! You could've distracted her with something else! I told you to be responsible and you—!"

"We know!" Mokuba exclaimed, "We should've done something! It kills me to see Amane like this! She's our friend and we care so much about her! We really do! We're scared Bakura-san! We don't want to lose her!"

And he broke down into tears, Shizuka following soon after and Ryou staring at the two and his sister in horror.

Completely loss of what to do.

Marik came through then, kneeling between them all, right by Amane's unconscious mind, "Let's everybody calm down. Shizuka-san. You mentioned something about the Pharaoh. Tell us exactly what happened."

And she went through it all to them, from "Is anyone there" to "Yes".

"So you three talked to someone killed in a duel by the Pharaoh." Ryou's stomach dropped immediately, "That much we know."

"KuKuKu." _He_ chuckled into Ryou's ear, "Oh I wonder _who_."

Marik froze as his fingers pressed to Amane's neck. "Mokuba-kun, call an ambulance right now."

His eyes widened in horror and just barely choked out, "W-What? Why? What's wrong with her?!"

Upon seeing his emotion, Marik then turned to Shizuka, "Shizuka-san, call—"

"I'm on it!" she cried, already at the home phone.

Ryou could only fall deeper and deeper into his shame and fear as he too moved his hand to her neck.

And felt no pulse.

* * *

There was a distinct taste of sand in her mouth, this is what Amane' recognized before anything else. She opened her eyes slowly. Everything was so blurred, so surreal. Like a dream. A shrill scream shocked her into reality—a reality of an aching body and a mouth full of sand. She sat up quickly and spat, even resorting to wiping her tongue off with her hands. She always thought that she missed the warm sands of the beach back in Florida but this wasn't what she mean't!

Once her taste buds returned to their normal equilibrium, Amane took a moment to look around. There were miles upon miles of sand under a swirling black and purple sky. She could just barely see the silhouettes of what looked like boulders and dinosaur skeletons in the distance.

"Where am I?" she breathed and shivered as she felt a breeze tickle her skin.

She looked down and her eyes bugged out as she found herself dressed only in her frilly blue and white undergarments. She screamed as she tried to cover herself, "And why am I half naked?!"

She took another quick scan of the perimeter before slowly uncovering herself, "It doesn't look like anyone's around. I should probably start looking around for people though. And maybe I'll find an outlet store."

Amane stood up and began walking in the direction where the silhouettes looked the closest. She jumped as she stepped on something hard. She looked down and saw a bit of purple material poking a bit out of the sand. She gasped in joy, dropped to her knees and began digging up the material. She immediately halted as she grabbed the thing she stepped on: a skeleton wearing a white grinning half mask and a dark purple cloak. She shrieked and immediately dropped the skeleton.

"What is this place?!" she cried.

She took a second look at the skeleton. The cloak looked warm and it wasn't like Mr. Phantom of the Opera down there was using it. And honestly, anything was better than walking around in the desert in her bra and panties…

She crawled back over to the skeleton and tugged at the cloak, causing the skeleton to disintegrate into dust at the abrupt movement. Its mask fell silently to the sand. Amane shook out the cloak to rid it of the dust, sand, and god know what else. She looked at the symbol on the hood—a white Egyptian eye dead in the center. She shivered.

"Oh god what if this guy was in some middle eastern secret society like the Arabian KKK or something?!" Amane gasped in horror before smiling and justifying, "Well then I'm doing a good deed by stealing his coat! Amane Bakura, one! The forces of evil, zero!"

She pulled the cloak on and set off again on her quest for… Her quest for… What was she looking for? Civilization? Cities? A mall? Answers?

Answers. That sounded about right. She set off again on her quest for answers. Where was she? What was that scream she heard when she first woke up? Where were the people? Would she ever get home? And where was the dead boy she needed to save?

* * *

 **A/N: Yay it's a longer chapter this time! Follow, favorite, and review if you like the story!**


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